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Vintage Computers Any vintage computer systems, calculators, video games etc., but with an emphasis on 1980s and earlier equipment.

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Old 25th Jul 2016, 8:18 pm   #121
SiriusHardware
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

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Originally Posted by evingar View Post
"I don't care if we are in danger of a "melt down", it takes 10 minutes to re-load the program from tape" <Block Error>
Wasn't the 'block error' message actually a feature of the Acorn / BBC cassette interface?

Certainly, if you had a misread half way through the tape you could back up the tape to just before the problem and try again, unlike the Sinclair machines where you had to start all over again.
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Old 28th Jul 2016, 7:54 am   #122
grahamperrin
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

An Apple Macintosh Portable. Backlit, if I recall correctly, which would make it a 1991 model. I read that very rare to find an original battery that will hold charge and allow the computer to start but when I last checked, the one that I have did start, and worked.

The trackball is lovely.
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Old 31st Jul 2016, 5:46 pm   #123
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Had one of the Amstrad PPC1512's with a hard card (not sure of the size), and 3.5 and 5 1/4" floppies. Power supply was built into the monitor and the RTC was kept by 4 AA batteries under where the monitor sat into the computer itself (the batteries would 'pop' out if the monitor was not there.

Had both DR-DOS and MS-DOS and GEM on the HDD. Originally it was supposed to only have DR-DOS but Microsoft persisted in getting them to have MS-DOS as well. Had it's own special mouse connector (9 pin D-SUB but not serial) and the keyboard had a 9 pin joystick connector built in.

Also, if you can count it as a computer, I have a Roland S-330 sampler, has a mouse, and a colour screen option (Digital RGB but easy to convert to SCART with a few resistors). Has a whopping 720K Words of sample RAM and boots the operating and stores user settings/sample/program data on floppy (720k DD), no working floppy disc and you will either get a blank screen or a "Insert Disk" message, needs an older style floppy drive too.
2 types of OS are available, one is the standard which comes with the device and has the main sampling OS (also all sample/program disks have the OS on them minus the sampling section) and a paid for option (with dongle which is required for saving anything) that allows it to function as a sequencer similar to the fairlite).
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Old 2nd Aug 2016, 5:11 pm   #124
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I never understood why Amstrad used such an odd mouse arrangement when the computers supported an ordinary mouse on the serial port perfectly well anyway!
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Old 2nd Aug 2016, 9:18 pm   #125
dglcomp
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Probably could make their own cheaper and so did. They did sell their computers in very large quantities and it was only the problems with the HDD controllers in the follow up model that killed them in the marketplace (which I believe ended up in Alan Sugar suing Seagate and winning).
Acorn (except the A7000)/Atari/Amiga were the same and the mouse for the Roland S series samplers was also not a serial mouse.

Also remember having an early Pentium machine (brought s/h) that had a GUI BIOS.
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Old 3rd Aug 2016, 11:47 am   #126
dominicbeesley
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

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Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
I never understood why Amstrad used such an odd mouse arrangement when the computers supported an ordinary mouse on the serial port perfectly well anyway!
The Microsoft and PS/2 serial Mice (I hate the word mouses) were at that point certainly not a standard and were really quite a bodge. There were a lot of machines home and top-end workstations that used simpler quadrature encoded mice. With the right hardware they could work well and often putting less load on the processor. for example in the Acorn machines the cursor and mouse decoding was all done on a separate chip that overlaid the cursor on the screen whereas on contemporary Windows machines there had to be a driver that decoded the serial signal and overlaid the picture of the pointer manually in RAM (saving what was underneath) and redoing this for each movement of the mouse.

From bitter experience of working in IT support in the 90's with PS/2, and Serial mice in DOS, Windows and Linux I can tell you they really didn't just work. They were a complete pain in the backside until USB came along, lots of faffing with COM ports, interrupts, IO ports. They can still be a bit of a pain in Linux!

I remember Gem desktop on the Amstrad being a lot smoother and nicer than the contemporary MS Windows (I can't remember if it was 2.0 or 2.1 at the time).

D
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Old 3rd Aug 2016, 3:36 pm   #127
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I have an earlyish Microsoft mouse that originally came in the box with Windows (3, I think). It has the PS/2 connector, but also has an adapter lead for the 15W "D" serial port. It was a bit mix and match back then in the DOS/Windows transition days.
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Old 3rd Aug 2016, 4:47 pm   #128
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

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Originally Posted by grahamperrin View Post
An Apple Macintosh Portable. Backlit, if I recall correctly, which would make it a 1991 model. I read that very rare to find an original battery that will hold charge and allow the computer to start
That's an easy fix - pop the battery case and replace the three 'Cyclon' lead-acid cells inside. Reseal, charge and get that welcome 'bong' when the Portable starts.

I had three of those.
__________________
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Old 11th Aug 2016, 4:57 am   #129
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

First and strangest computer I ever had was a Spectrum Z81. 2nd hand (don't ask). Never got it to work unfortunately.
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Old 11th Aug 2016, 5:45 pm   #130
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Quote:
Originally Posted by AC/HL View Post
I have an earlyish Microsoft mouse that originally came in the box with Windows (3, I think). It has the PS/2 connector, but also has an adapter lead for the 15W "D" serial port. It was a bit mix and match back then in the DOS/Windows transition days.
That reminds me, I once had a Microsoft "Inport Mouse" which had its own 8-bit interface card. I think the connector was similar to the PS/2 type. This was when I had an 8088 based PC clone, mid 1980's.
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Old 11th Aug 2016, 6:19 pm   #131
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I had a Sun Microsystems SPARCserver 1000E as a desktop at home for about 6 months in 1997. It was a fully stacked machine that cost a small fortune (six figures) only four years before it was scrapped and I managed to intercept it on the way to the skip.

It had 8 CPUs, 2Gb of RAM, separate storage array stuffed full of 500Mb SCSI disks and the lights dimmed when you powered it up. The display was a 21" Trinitron I skip dived separately. This ran Solaris 2.5 if I remember correctly and CDE very slowly. It basically ran Netscape, slowly, Cadence, slowly, SPICE slowly.

Eventually I got the electricity bill and realised it was giving me minor tinnitus so it went for private sale. I got £500 for it in the end, which covered the electricity bill, just.

That's technology depreciation!
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Old 27th Sep 2016, 6:17 pm   #132
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Ah not actually mine (yet) but I have my eye on a rusting IBM 1401 mainframe, last one sold for £30k on an auction site, just need to become an expert in asbestos removal to be allowed into the building to get to work on it.

http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm...1401-machines/
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Old 27th Sep 2016, 7:33 pm   #133
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I have a weird and wonderful Mattel Aquarius PC /games machine .
Total flop but interesting and wacky.
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Old 30th Sep 2016, 7:59 pm   #134
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

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Originally Posted by mintras View Post
Ah not actually mine (yet) but I have my eye on a rusting IBM 1401 mainframe, last one sold for £30k on an auction site, just need to become an expert in asbestos removal to be allowed into the building to get to work on it.
That sounds amazing. I didn't think that finds like that still existed "in the wild". Please keep us posted.

Cheers,

Andy.

P.S. If you know where there is an Elliot 903 sitting similarly unloved, drop me a PM
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Old 2nd Oct 2016, 5:18 pm   #135
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I have a Silicon Graphics Octane, in working condition, as an office toy at work. Unfortunately, at the moment it's out of commission because the adapter needed to use it with a conventional VGA monitor has been misplaced in an office move (though presumably still around, somewhere) and the root password was lost by its previous owner and I haven't yet found the time or inclination to reimage it.

Years ago, I owned an NCR 8085, which was a desk with a monitor built into the top and an open-air single-platter hard drive, assorted memory boards, and a CPU board where the desk drawers would normally go. It originally ran accounting software. I disassembled it and sold the hard drive. It made a nice desk.

I had an Apple III that a customer dropped off and never picked up. He wondered if I could make it do something useful, because at the time I developed software for a living. I told him no.

I had a Micro PDP-11, and an original IBM AS/400. The AS/400 was destroyed in an office break-in. The AS/400 faced the door, as a working piece of decoration. The robber threw a hefty rock through the glass door, which smashed into the front panel of the poor old mini and destroyed it. Then he stole a laptop.
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Old 2nd Oct 2016, 5:34 pm   #136
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Almost forgot: I have a DEC Alpha workstation. I keep meaning to dig it out of storage, put OpenVMS on it and do something with it, but then I get distracted by something else.
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Old 8th Oct 2016, 9:03 pm   #137
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I have an Apple LC 111 which works and has all its software operating system CD ROM and printer. Mint and it's suprisingly fast.
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